Credo House, an Oklahoma coffee shop and Christian ministry, made “10 Myths about God,” a video series that rejects ten Christian myths. I like rejecting myths about God, so let’s run through them and search for common ground.
Myth 1: Christianity is blind faith. We’re told that it’s a myth that Christianity is not warranted or reasoned. It doesn’t ask you to check your brain at the door. Remember that Jesus told us to love him with our heart, soul, and mind. In Isaiah, God says, “Let us reason together.” (I’ll use blue for the myth, green for the correction by the video, and black for my own comments.)
I will use reason to evaluate the remarkable claims of Christianity regardless, but it’s nice to see that the guys are on board. Things go a little off the rails when one of the hosts lampoons the idea of blind faith with this example: “It would be like someone telling you, ‘2 + 2 = 5; I know it doesn’t make any sense … but just have faith.’”
Which is precisely what Pastor Peter LaRuffa recently said for real: “If somewhere within the Bible, I were to find a passage that said 2 + 2 = 5, I wouldn’t question what I’m reading in the Bible. I would believe it, accept it as true, and then do my best to work it out and understand it.” As with Poe’s Law, you may not be able to make up a nutty Christian view that someone doesn’t embrace.
Another claim made in this first video is that God doesn’t do things in hiding. However, that’s not quite what Jesus said:
I praise you, Father … because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children (Matthew 11:25).
The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, “though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand” (Luke 8:10).
Paul also speaks of hidden mysteries:
We declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. (1 Corinthians 2:7).
The message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known (Romans 16:25–6).
Finally, I’ll take exception to the comparison made between God and one’s spouse, that a spouse would welcome your wanting to learn more, and the same is true of God. But God is dramatically unlike a spouse on so many other critical points (a spouse reliably responds when you talk to them, clearly exists, doesn’t kill people) that there’s little reason to trust that he’s like a spouse on this point.
Myth 2: The Bible is a magic book. Don’t flip open the Bible, select a verse at random, and expect it to tell your fortune like a crystal ball.
This sounds like good advice, but I wonder then why they didn’t follow it when picking a new twelfth disciple after the death of Judas. To select between two candidates, “They cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias” (Acts 1:26).
Our hosts describe this wrong thinking: “It’s like God’s just wanting to send us tweets.” But I’d be surprised if these guys don’t infer God indirectly nudging them through everyday events—a beautiful sunset, say, or a random thought, or an unwanted accident.
We’re told that the Bible has dual authorship: it’s “fully from God and fully from Man.” But in what way is it fully from God? Is it protected from error? No, copies are full of errors, some deliberate, and our best guesses at the originals of some books contradict other books.
They say, “[The Bible] is not difficult to understand, but it does take work.” If by “understand,” you mean that there’s a single, consistent message available to the patient scholar, then explain the 42,000 denominations and the fact that Christian sects aren’t converging (more here and here).
This is yet another example where the Bible could do something supernatural, but its apologists say that, no, it can’t do that. It’s authored by God, and yet supernatural authorship is no more apparent than with the holy books of the Hindus or Muslims.
Myth 3: God wants us healthy and wealthy. God is like our biological father, and it’s natural to imagine that God wants the best for us and shows his anger when bad things happen.
Apparently, though, these “God is like a spouse/father/judge/whatever” analogies are like Play-Doh that can be shaped to support the apologetic argument of the moment. This time, God is not like a loving father who wants us to prosper and to instruct us plainly. No, God’s love must be inferred through life’s difficulties.
Remember how God allowed Satan to ruin Job’s life (Satan was God’s prosecuting attorney at this part of the story). Or how Paul imagined Jesus saying, “My power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:8–10). Or the caution, “Do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you” (1 Peter 4:12). God is apparently a tough-love kind of father.
But as with most arguments built on Bible verses, two can play that game. For starters, remember that Job was wealthy before God’s little project, and God made him doubly so afterwards. One message from this story seems to be that God may test you, but he’ll make it worth your while afterwards.
Preachers of the prosperity gospel use the very same Bible to make clear that God does want you healthy and wealthy.
No one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (Mark 10:29–30).
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse . . . and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it (Malachi 3:10).
You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it (John 14:14).
Our hosts tell us that God loves us dearly but will (for his own good reasons) put us through hard times, up to and including the death of our children.
This reminds me of a podcast from this same organization where they wrestled with the problem of a father who had lost his 20-ish son. Because the son was not “saved,” not only had the father lost a son, but his own theology put his son in torment in hell!
And Christians wonder what atheists could possibly find troublesome about Christianity …
The final insult from this video is the idea that living with pain and suffering makes us love God even more. Then what’s the difference between the Christian and a battered spouse? I mean, besides the fact that the abusing spouse actually exists?
Continue with Part 2.
We are the pure and chosen few
And all the rest are damned
There’s room enough in hell for you.
We don’t want heaven crammed.
— wisdom from the Plymouth Brethren,
as told by Christopher Hitchens
Photo credit: Boston Public Library